More on “The Catskill 67″

We have a word limit on articles for the paper so I couldn’t get into too much detail about Alan Via’s new book “The Catskill 67: A Hiker’s Guide to the Catskill 100 Highest Peaks under 3500′ ” when I wrote about it last week. So, if you’d like to know more about the book, this post is for you.

As I explained in the article, “The Catskill 67″ describes the 67 mountains that make up the 100 highest peaks after the 35 that hikers do to get their 3500 patch (for those peaks over 3500′). 35+67=102 … because the three smallest of the 67 are all the same height.

Most guide books from ADK are pretty dry – they describe the trails and give you a ton of information, but they don’t have much personality. Via’s voice really shines through in this book – his enthusiasm for the woods is evident. Besides describing the trail, he also tells readers what types of flora and fauna they might see. Humorous asides are common. In the description for Irish Mt., for instance, Via notes that the area is popular with porcupines and warns dog owners to be careful:

While Labs make great hiking companions, they’ll never pass a Mensa test. A local resident related how his two beagles roamed around his home for nine years without incident. His two Labs, however, repeatedly tangled with porcupines.

Often, the humor also imparts some interesting information. Again, from the description for Irish:

The higher elevations on the mountains have pricker patches that will generate oohs and aahs from friends and family who’ll question your sanity when seeing your post-whack souvenirs.

Quite a few of the 67 hikes described require bushwhacking, going off trail and navigating by map and compass (or GPS, if you’re so inclined). Via provides GPS coordinates to all the trailheads and to some confusing road junctions, but he doesn’t give the coordinates for summits or lay out the exact route he took. When we hiked together he explained that he was concerned about the impact that would have on the forest – if too many bushwhackers take the exact same route, a herd path develops, which changes the wilderness experience for everyone who follows.

Another big consideration is that some of the hikes are on private land. There’s a section in the front of the book on respecting private property, but don’t expect Via to tell you who you need to call to get permission to hike mountains on private property. He wants you to take the time and effort to do the research and figure that out for yourself – and how rude would it have been for him to print a list of landowners and their phone numbers in the book, anyway? Using courtesy and good sense, Via almost always got permission from landowners to hike on their land and never hiked without it. Via writes:

Your discretion will help keep access open for the future. Common sense, common courtesy, a smile and “thank you” go a long way.

Via divides the mountains into nine different regions, each of which gets its own custom-made map. Each region also starts with a general description of the area and other activities that are possible there – places to fish or swim or cycle, for instance.

Within each region, the mountains are listed in order of descending height. Then Via gives each mountain a rank (its order in height among the 67), a view rating, an interest rating, a difficulty rating and a bushwhack rating. What’s really nice is that there’s a chart at the beginning of the book listing all of the Catskill 100 highest that shows you whether they’re trailed or not and which USGS map (or “Catskill 67″ map) to find them on. So if you want to use this book to find little-known hikes in the Catskills but don’t want to bushwhack, you can use this chart to narrow your options.

Also new to ADK guidebooks – every page of the book is in full-color and it’s sprinkled with photos by Via and some of his hiking companions.

The back of the book includes several appendixes (including “Bushwhacking Basics,” a breakdown of the peaks into categories like most challenging and easiest to bushwhack, a list of peaks that can be hiked in tandem, a glossary of terms and a list of references.

It’s a great book for anyone looking for new and interesting places to explore. Via obviously took great care in putting it together. He told me he wanted to create a guidebook that had everything he’d always felt other books were missing and I think he has succeeded.